I have had some of the best days of my 20s up in the hills around Taipei – the days spent up there rooted in my memory. That’s why I was so delighted that, after six years of pestering, Ken finally decided to come up to Taipei for a round of mountain biking. Sadly, I managed to miss my alarm call leaving the rest of the guys stranded at Starbucks without us, but Ken and I managed none-the-less to string together a great day of riding and catching up before my departure.

Looking out from Starbucks at the rain

Making some adjustments to the Heckler brakes

A new office chair post will probably change the riding dynamic; ie: less chatting!

Need to do more of this in future.

The rock drop section is never a cake-walk, but heading into this cameras blazing, knowing it was going to be my last attempt in a long time, combined with fuzzy status of medical insurance, definitely sapped my fluidity.

The addition of steps on the intermediate section is not my favourite modification to the trail

'Honestly, this is the way!'

I am itching to see what the trails are going to be like in San Francisco, and beyond …